2 Texas men get 15-year sentences for torture of gay man

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

2 Texas men get 15-year sentences for torture of gay man

Updated 6:49 pm, Wednesday, February 17, 2016

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — Two South Texas men have received the maximum 15-year sentences in federal prison after pleading guilty to federal hate crime charges in the March 2012 torture of a gay African-American man in Corpus Christi.

Ramiro Serrata Jr. and Jimmy Garza were sentenced Wednesday in Corpus Christi by Senior U.S. District Judge Hayden Head. Both men must pay the victim $10,800 in restitution, serve three years of supervised release and register as sex offenders. Both pleaded guilty last September.

Garza, who is 33, and Serrata, who is 23, admitted luring the man to an apartment and, for three hours, punching, kicking and assaulting him with various weapons, including a frying pan, a battery-filled sock, a belt and a broomstick. They taunted him with racist and homophobic epithets.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/2-South-Texas-men-get-maximum-for-man-s-hate-6837668.php

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(Short article, no more at link.)

[HassleCat]

2. It was a federal proceeding.

If it were up to Texas prosecutors, they would have been set free and given an award.

[mgmaggiemg]

3. 15 yrs is all they get?

makes my stomach turn

[TexasBushwhacker]

6. They plead guilty n/t

[Akicita]

7. That was the maximum.

[bigwillq]

8. The max should be life in prison (nt)

[mdbl]

4. WTF?

Place them in a prison for the criminally insane.

[TexasTowelie]

5. A longer article from the Corpus Christi Caller-Times

Judge: Beating, rape “inhuman and disgusting”

[restorefreedom]

9. 15 yrs....,what a slap in the face

is no crime worthy of life in prison anymore?

i know its the max. that is the problem.